The Nachsorgekongress in Frankfurt finished today. The national curfew on entering Ireland unfortunately not. The first Aer Lingus flight back home was going to be late night on Sunday which I booked and went back to the hotel I had just checked out of in the morning. Then I saw a Lufthansa flight leaving this evening for Dublin, straight away bought a ticket, and immediately checked in. I had been in the hotel just for an hour and asked the receptionist would they refund my money because I could now get back to Dublin tonight. (It was one of those hotels where you have to pay in advance, in case…) They said no, they couldn’t and wouldn’t. A second later I received a text from Lufthansa saying they had cancelled tonight’s flight to Dublin. Panic. But only for a few minutes until I received another text telling me that they had re-booked me onto tomorrow’s very early morning flight. – So, in the end, and with a bit of excitement, all kinda worked out. Hopefully.

So this afternoon I took a walk to downtown Frankfurt, home of the euro. I nearly bought a 17 euro ticket to the Frankfurt Opera House to see “L’Africaine – Vasco da Gama” by Giacomo Meyerbeers. When I heard it was 4 1/2 hours long I first hesitated: although 17 euro for a 4 1/2 long opera is a snatch… and then decided: I was going to give it a miss. Even this being a truly ‘grand’ opera and all, I would most likely have fallen asleep half way through. It’ll be an early night instead.

Carers are still thin on the ground (with some notable exceptions), just like snow, so the folks at home are mainly managing on their own and I feel bad not being there to help. There was a bit of a crisis today as carers did not turn up at all to look after an 85+ year old very ill bed-ridden neighbour whose equally mature partner was becoming increasingly nervous about things – which is when an incredibly generous and caring neighbour (who had also looked after Pádraig on occasions) stepped in. It was a life-saver, maybe in the true sense of the word. And it makes me think: what do care agencies believe happens to a very ill bed-ridden octogenarian if hey are not being look after and cared for over a number of days. In my books this is nothing short of abuse of the elderly and far worse than any beast approaching from whatever direction…